School starts for our girls this week and I go back to my part-time job next week as well as begin a new class I am taking this semester through SWU. We love change but, it takes a while for us at the Smith house to balance everything out when we have a new routine. Being a wife, mother, pastor, friend, employee and student requires balance and effort. Somedays I am better at one thing than another, but it is never good for me to let go of something completely.
When it comes to being a disciple we are to follow the example of Christ. In Luke 6:12-19 Jesus demonstrates the importance of spending time with the Father, hanging out in community with the disciples and reaching out to the lost in the world, or as we have been labeling it, the UP-IN and OUT of discipleship. Christ has called us to seek time with the Father, growing in our relationship with Him. He has called us to spend time encouraging and lifting each other up as the body of Christ, loving one another and challenging one another to be more like Christ. Jesus didn’t leave it there, he also called us to reach out to the world around us outside the church walls. We read in Matt 22: 34-40 NLT 34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” 37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” We are called to love the Lord our God with everything we have. That’s the UP. But again, Jesus doesn’t leave it there. No, he asks for much more. He quotes the law in saying, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” Neighbor here is two-fold. We love our neighbor as in we love our family, our community of believers. Jesus said to his disciples, “This command I give you: Love one another.” (John 15:17) That’s the IN. Jesus explained in a parable that our neighbor is anyone we come across, the OUT. We are to love everyone! So how do we balance all three of these? We work at it together, as a family, sharing our strengths with one another and depending on others to help us with our weaknesses. Doing two of the three is not an option. If we are not living out all three areas in our walk with Christ, we are either a social club, a humanitarian or a lone ranger. We are called to be disciple makers! Let’s work together to build the kingdom of God. A triangle is strongest when all three sides and angles are equal. To be the church God has called us to be, we must be involved in all three areas of discipleship, the UP-IN and OUT!
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AuthorThe Pastors of Cornerstone Wesleyan Church Archives
July 2017
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